Are you buying a house in France, where real estate agents easily charge 5% and sometimes even more? Then it is certainly worth asking yourself whether you should maybe buy a house without a real estate agent. Depending on the selling price, the brokerage fees can add up considerably. The average price of a house in France is between 200,000 and 300,000 euros. So, at a commission rate of 5% you pay a brokerage fee of many thousands or euros. Of course, in itself it might not be a bad thing to pay a specialist for doing his or her job, as long as that job means that the numbers still add up. The question is what precisely a real estate agent does for
french property market
What’s wrong with the property agents in France?
Property agents in France are having to deal with big problem. Almost 50% of the real estate transactions in France is done ‘entre particuliers’. This means that buyers and sellers find each other, negotiate and close the transaction without the intervention of a professional realtor. Only the signing of the contracts is, of course, done at the notary’s. In any case 50% private sales is a lot more than in neighbouring countries, where the involvement of a property broker is standard practice. In the Netherlands, for instance, only a few per cent of the deals go through without an agency. How can we explain this difference?
Property agents in France – a high price
The most important reason for bypassing the property agents in France is the high prices they charge. Lately there is a bit of a shift downwards under pressure from the market and the Internet, but for a long time you had to pay the ‘agent immobilier’ at least 6%. A broker in Burgundy, with an